One Year Pray for the Persecuted Bible - Flipbook - Page 64
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January 15
speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father
speaking through you.
21 “A brother will betray his brother to death,
a father will betray his own child, and children
will rebel against their parents and cause
them to be killed. 22 And all nations will hate
you because you are my followers.* But every
one who endures to the end will be saved.
23 When you are persecuted in one town, flee
to the next. I tell you the truth, the Son of Man*
will return before you have reached all the
towns of Israel.”
10:1 Greek unclean.
10:3 Other manuscripts read Lebbaeus; still
10:4 Greek the
others read Lebbaeus who is called Thaddaeus.
Cananean, an Aramaic term for Jewish nationalists. 10:7 Or
10:18 Or But this will be your
has come, or is coming soon.
10:22 Greek
testimony against the rulers and other unbelievers.
10:23 “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used
on account of my name.
for himself.
PSALM 12:1‑8
For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be
accompanied by an e ight-stringed instrument.*
1
2
Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast
disappearing!
The faithful have vanished from
the earth!
Neighbors lie to each other,
speaking with flattering lips and
deceitful hearts.
3
4
5
6
7
8
May the Lord cut off their flattering lips
and silence their boastful tongues.
They say, “We will lie to our hearts’ content.
Our lips are our o
wn—who can stop us?”
The Lord replies, “I have seen violence
done to the helpless,
and I have heard the groans of the poor.
Now I will rise up to rescue them,
as they have longed for me to do.”
The Lord’s promises are pure,
like silver refined in a furnace,
purified seven times over.
Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect
the oppressed,
preserving them forever from this lying
generation,
even though the wicked strut about,
and evil is praised throughout the land.
12:title Hebrew according to the sheminith.
PROVERBS 3:13‑15
13
14
15
Joyful is the person who finds wisdom,
the one who gains understanding.
For wisdom is more profitable than silver,
and her wages are better than gold.
Wisdom is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare
with her.
CHRISTIANS WHO ARE PERSECUTED in Muslim-majority nations live
with constant tension. Daily they must discern who can be trusted
and who’s eager to betray them. They need the Spirit’s guidance about
when it’s safe to meet and when even casual glances at other believers
invite arrest. And they need God’s boldness to wisely share their faith
in ways that clearly communicate the living God’s love for his lost
children. • LORD, GIVE WISDOM to my brothers and sisters living
in dangerous places. May they be harmless as doves but shrewd as
snakes as they walk with you. Provide for their every need. Amen.
GENESIS 31:17–32:12
So Jacob put his wives and children on camels, 18 and he drove all his livestock in front
of him. He packed all the belongings he had
acquired in Paddan-aram and set out for the
land of Canaan, where his father, I saac, lived.
19 At the time they left, Laban was some distance away, shearing his sheep. Rachel stole
her father’s household idols and took them
with her. 20 Jacob outwitted Laban the Ara
mean, for they set out secretly and never told
Laban they were leaving. 21 So Jacob took all
his possessions with him and crossed the Euphrates River,* heading for the hill country of
Gilead.
JANUARY
15
22 Three days later, Laban was told that Jacob
had fled. 23 So he gathered a group of his relatives and set out in hot pursuit. He caught up
with Jacob seven days later in the hill country
of Gilead. 24 But the previous night God had
appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream
and told him, “I’m warning y ou—leave Jacob
alone!”
25 La
ban caught up with Jacob as he was
camped in the hill country of Gilead, and he
set up his camp not far from Jacob’s. 26 “What
do you mean by deceiving me like this?” Laban
demanded. “How dare you drag my daughters away like prisoners of war? 27 Why did
you slip away secretly? Why did you deceive
